Apple Photo Edit not working

Question

Level 1

4 points

Apple Photo Edit not working

I am using MacOS 15.2 on a Mac Studio and when I try to edit photos the application becomes unresponsive. I have 14k photos and videos in my library. I am scanning a number of old photos and using the Edit function to do the final improvement to some images.

All seemed to be working well, then I started to use the Markup magnify to identify individuals in old class photos. It worked really well the first few times I used it, subsequently it became unresponsive when I tried to make further use of the function on other photos.

Now the clean up function is behaving in a similar way and I can no longer use it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Mac Studio, macOS 15.2

Posted on Jan 26, 2025 11:24 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Began121 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 28, 2025 10:37 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

Hi Richard,

I think I have worked out the problem and it is a function file size of the source file.

I had set up my scanner to output old photos as .TIFF with old class photos becoming 1 GB or more. It was these photos I was doing most of the clean up work on.

I converted the file to JPEG and it became about 500 MB and most of the edit functions worked except the magnifying feature in Mark Up which is really handy in these old photos to highlight the person you are interested in.

I then converted it to a large JPEG (not actual size) and size came down to about 250 MB and all functions worked successfully and responsively.

Not sure how you let apple know of this issue.

Thanks for your help :-)

Reply

Answer 2

Jan 27, 2025 9:46 AM in response to Began121

As Yer_Man suggests, you need to let us know about the location of your Library.

Have you tried re-starting the Mac?

If that doesn't do it, try a re-start in Safe Mode. This bypasses certain potentially disruptive processes, and it often helps. Safe Mode is different for different computers, so see this:

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

After you check out things in Safe Mode, be sure to restart normally and see if things are fixed.

Let us know…

Reply

Answer 3

Jan 28, 2025 7:25 AM in response to Began121

Began121 wrote: … It is stored iCloud

The Photos Library must be on your Mac someplace, usually in the Pictures folder, though it can also be in a properly formatted external drive.

What folder on your Mac contains the Photos Library? It is originally named "Photos Library.photoslibrary"

If the Library is in an inappropriate place, then running Photos may harm the Library. Stop!

Sometimes people mistakenly move the Photos Library to the iCloud Drive folder. Did you do that? If so, it cannot work. It must be moved back.

Reply

Answer 4

Yer_Man

Level 10

166,342 points

Jan 27, 2025 1:07 AM in response to Began121

Where is your library stored? If on an external, what format is that?

Reply

Answer 5

léonie

Level 10

201,909 points

Jan 29, 2025 2:15 AM in response to Began121

The size of your TIFFs explains it. On none of my Macs the Photos.app can handle such gigantic TIFF files and apply local adjustments, even Aperture and PhotoShop will be unresponsive. But none of my Macs has a larger memory than 32GB. For my high resolution satellite images with 2GB size I had to use third-party apps. It is interesting that not even your Mac Studio can handle the large files. May I ask how much RAM is installed on your Mac Studio?

Reply

Answer 6

léonie

Level 10

201,909 points

Jan 30, 2025 1:21 AM in response to Began121

Thank you. 32GB memory is great for large RAW files taken with a camera, but will probably not suffice to use the Artificial Intelligence tools on such huge scanned TIFFs.

Reply

Answer 7

Jan 29, 2025 7:32 AM in response to Began121

Wow! Huge files!

I wonder if you're gaining anything with so much data-- if the data are really useful detail in faces, or if it's mostly noise. You say you're scanning-- if you're scanning printed pictures, the extra information may be just the grain of the paper. Even slides, scanned directly from the film, have enough grain that higher resolution isn't always useful.

300 dots per inch is pretty good for text at normal reading distance. If you scan at 1200 dpi, an 8x10 picture will be about 400 MB. (Lossless compression may make that a tenth as big.) Your files are more than a thousand times that size! I usually scan old pictures at about 600 dpi, or 1200 dpi for small ones that get blown up more.

Reply

Answer 8

Began121 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 27, 2025 6:09 PM in response to Began121

I have tried restarting - both hard (power off at switch) and soft restart without any improvement.

I am have also tried the changing to iCloud Photos to the 'Download Originals to this Mac' but this made no change.

Reply

Answer 9

Began121 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 28, 2025 7:49 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

Thanks Richard.

Yes it is in the Pictures folder and has the original name. I have iCloud set in the settings as well as 'Optimise the Mac Storage' set so that not every thing is on the SSD and it is backed up as part of iCloud features.

The standard photos functionality is all working, it is only the edit function and sub-functions within it such as clean up and markup that are failing and making the application unresponsive. As an example, if you select a photo and go into edit, then the standard adjustments all work. If you select, Clean Up from the tabs above the photo, then it shows the size tool but you can't use it. These functions were working well for me quite recently but have just stopped.

Reply

Answer 10

Began121 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 30, 2025 7:05 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

Hi Richard, you have made some excellent points.

I have a scanner capable of 4800 dpi and wanted to maximise any possible future use. I have since done some testing at both 2400 and 4800 dpi with output to Tiff and Jpeg formats with a variety of photo type (eg B&W with 50 people in photo through to small colour photo of 5x5 cm). I viewed the outcomes on my 77 inch TV and can not see any real difference.

On the more complex images with lots of detail, then 4800 dpi scan create images that too big to be successfully manipulated in iPhotos. For my purposes, I will do the remainder of the photos using 2400 to Jpeg.

Thanks for your help :-)

Reply